Jude Law-Henry VIII, 'the English monarchy? It's theatre'

After Johnny Depp King Louis XV of France (in Jeanne du Barry by Maiwenn, opening out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival), another king on the Croisette: it is Jude Law, completely unrecognizable in the role of the tyrant Henry VIII of England in the film Firebrand directed by Brazilian Algerian director Karim Ainouz competing for the Palme d'Or, based on the historical novel by Elizabeth Fremantle. Now that you have immersed yourself in the subject, what do you think of the British monarchy? "I see it as a theater - replies amused Law, back in shape and with an unusual blond mustache - even if I'm slightly more obsessed with theater. I'm not a gossip type... I don't really like to follow the chatter," he adds on the Royal Family soap opera with fugitive Harry. Law (The Talented Mr Ripley, The New Pope, Sherlock, Fantastic Beasts and many other films), 50 years old in December, offers a remarkable performance as a powerful sixteenth-century Englishman. And, he reveals, he was helped by a perfume specially created for him to enter the mood of the tyrant.
"Cat urine, blood, fecal matter and sweat. Initially I used it sparingly and then more and more to create that right atmosphere when he entered the court," he explains among the general horror.
Alicia Vikander is the fantastic Catherine Parr, the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII, queen regnant, intelligent, cultured promoter of the reform and capable, as far as possible, to stand up to the notorious husband who had killed the previous five, first English woman to publish a book with her name, in short, almost a feminist for those times, confirmation.
"All of us and the operators on set struggled not to vomit from the smell," he says. Fat, arrogant, with a rotting leg infection, King Henry VIII's version of Jude Law is disgusting. "But I did not invent - he defends himself - I heard stories in which you could smell the rooms of Henry VIII because his leg rotted and you tried to cover the smell with rose oil". In addition to smells, Jude Law chronicles his journey to becoming the king so dark. "It's my job of course, I started working on his physical frailties, on the way he dealt with them, making him a recognizable and even empathetic character, I tried to make him something more than a monster". The ending of the film (it will be released in Italy with Vertice 360) is rather anti-historical, but, the director replies, "it doesn't matter".
For Alicia Vikander, yesterday on the red carpet with her husband and colleague Michael Fassbender, doing justice to the value and historical scope of Catherine Parr was important: "an extremely intelligent and extremely progressive woman ... and a woman who even survived the tyrant. It's pretty amazing what she did in the court, she even wrote books, which seem to resonate with Metoo today, and she was a woman 500 years ago. She got married, having no say and with five wives who died before her who with great love raised children not hers. Putting yourself in that state of mind really changes things. You realize how fragile every moment is and how great it has been." (ANSA).